This invention relates to solar cells which convert sunlight to electricity, and particularly to solar cells which include layers of tin oxide and silicon in their construction. Such cells have been described in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,146,657, which is incorporated by reference in the present application. In general, this patent disclosed a process for forming fluorine-doped tin oxide layers with such high electrical conductivity that they could be used advantageously as transparent electrodes covering a light-absorbing base material for solar cells made, for example, from silicon. This structure eliminated the need for an expensive and fragile grid of fine metallic lines which serve as an upper electrode in conventional solar cells.
The electrical resistance of these fluorine-doped tin oxide transparent electrodes is satisfactorily and consistently low, when measured with current flowing in the plane of the film. However, current flow between the tin oxide film and the silicon underneath, has been found to be impeded sometimes by an "interfacial resistance" between the two layers. Such interfacial resistance, when present, reduces the overall efficiency of a solar cell.
Another advantageous aspect of the tin oxide layer in these cells is its function as an optical antireflection coating. Bare flat silicon surfaces reflect over one-third of incident sunlight, while a silicon cell coated with tin oxide typically reflects about one-fifth of the incident light. It would clearly be desirable to reduce this 20% reflection loss still further.